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Police question Novel Baswedan in acid attack case
KPK investigator Novel Baswedan was questioned as a witness for the first time since the police arrested two of their active officers for allegedly carrying out an acid attack.
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Targeted: Corruption Eradication Commission senior investigator Novel Baswedan has his picture taken after talking to journalists in Singapore. Novel underwent treatment in Singapore on his left eye, which was injured in an acid attack last year. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
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akarta Police investigators summoned Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Novel Baswedan on Monday to question him as a witness over an acid attack on him in April 2017.
Novel was questioned as a witness for the first time since the police arrested two of their active officers for allegedly carrying out the attack.
The KPK investigator went to the Jakarta Police headquarters in South Jakarta at 10:20 a.m. on Monday. He was accompanied by a number of lawyers
"I will wait for the investigators' questions first," Novel said upon arriving for the questioning.
As of 1:30 p.m., the questioning was still ongoing.
Read also: Two active police officers charged with throwing acid on Novel Baswedan
Two people attacked the senior investigator in April 2017 by throwing acid on his face, causing serious injuries to his eyes. At the time of the attack, Novel was leading KPK investigations in several major cases, including the e-ID graft case that implicates a number of House of Representatives and high-ranking government officials.
After two-and-a-half-years of investigation, the National Police arrested two active police officers, identified only as RM and RB, as suspects in the attack.
RB told journalists on Dec. 28 that he committed the crime due to his resentment against Novel. "I don't like Novel because he's a traitor," the suspect said as quoted by kompas.com.
One of Novel's lawyers, Saor Siagian, said the statement contradicted findings made by a National Police-led fact-finding team earlier last year.
"Investigators should look more into the statement," Saor told journalists on Monday. He added further investigation on the statement should take place to prevent irresponsible people from disrupting the entire investigation.
